Niagara County farmers’ market-goers now have the chance to pick out locally grown greens on a weekday, as the Lockport Community Farmers Market has expanded to Wednesdays.
The downtown Lockport market held its first-ever weekday market Wednesday afternoon, and will continue to do so every Wednesday through the end of September. The market, located on the edge of the State Barge Canal, will still operate on Saturdays as well.
Yoselyn Rodriguez was there Wednesday, showing off an array of foods from her Puerto Rican heritage. However, her Lockport kitchen, Puerto Rican Madness, still gets much of its product from the local area. Her guava, for example, comes from local fruit trees.
“We use Puerto Rican traditional stuff, but we do use a lot from some farms around Niagara County,” she said.
Rodriguez makes her products in her own kitchen, but has that entrepreneurial dream of shifting into a commercial kitchen. Another stand at the market has already done so, Sugarcane Western New York.
“We have a commercial kitchen, rented commercial kitchen at 345 West Ferry (in Buffalo), and then our home office is in Kenmore,” said co-owner Sikkhum Lim.
His business relies on sugarcane from the Gulf Coast, but it’s pressed here to make an increasingly varied range of foods.
Local farmers have had to contend with a dry season this year. The region is tracking to come up short on its yearly rainfall and is considered “abnormally dry.”
JoMarie Human of Human's Farms and Greenhouses in Appleton knows how important moisture is to her veggies.
“We need more rain. That's always the question,” she said. “We've been having good warm days. My peppers love that and the rest of the stuff. Lettuce, not so much.”
Still, Human and other local businesses are able to do plenty of collaboration. She sells many of her hot peppers to Smokin’ Little Diner in Depew, which then uses the peppers to make barbecue sauce and hot sauce. Human sold the diner’s barbeque sauce at her stand Wednesday.
“We've been selling it for him for the last four years,” she said.
The Lockport Community Farmers Market will be open from 2 to 6 p.m. every Wednesday through Sept. 29. The weekend market runs from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Saturday through Oct. 23.
